The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-05-06

men, and these weak armed boys,
troops. But the hungry howl Of the
fierce dogs OF warCOm weeping across
the hills and valleys and echoes from
crag to Crag in the mountains.
Times were hard in Georgia. They
were desperate in the piney woods.
Hungry, hollow-eyed women went
from house to house asking aid. A
few Shareholders had corn and they
gave it out in small quantities to the
most needy. Sometimes bands OF
| desperate women attacked a barn or
COmmissary and carried off the con
tents. Rob the most dOclle animal
of her young, Stay her mate and then
starve her, and see if the numbed fac
ulties do not gradually, but surely,
concentrate into the one wild instinct
Of self preservation.
Poor old Aunt Nina. She would
| leave Betty at home and walk many
miles across the desOlate pine woods
to secure the cracklingsfrOm the plan
tatIOn fat gOurd, or q little dribbIe OF
mOlasses in the old brown jug where
Ebenezer used to keep the "sperits."
remember seeing the good woman
once with a handful of Cracklings and
a skirty piece ofdried beef in her apron,
and that Jug under her arm. She had
walked five miles, startingearly to Sc
cure these, and wasnOw on her return,
and two miles yet from home. The
molasses had fermented under the
heat of q July sun, and the COrnCOb
stopper had been forced out, and the
fOaming liquid was running out.
Do you suppose she let a drop go to
waste? No, she caught it on her lean
finger and licked the finger greedily,
and talked OF Mack and Little Dick.
II hain't got tim. (swipe) to stop a
mint (lick) but hits jes awastin'
~(swipe) an it do look so pitiful (ickl
to see it 90 to waste, (swipe) an
them po' Children asuferin' CiCk( fur
sumkin, ye gimme a leetle speck
(swipe) no taller grease to put in it
(lickJ to keep hit f'om aworkin'?"
And then she sat down on the door
step to rest a minute, while the Jug
cooled.
"No l haint hearn nothin' from
Little Dick sence he got in the mount
aims. Idon't never spec to see him
no more. Five boys have l sent to
the war, an one po' ~lifeless creature
is ali I've got left; but oh, l mustn't
forgit to tell ye, Mack got that ball
out'n his thigh today, drapped out.
l do b'lieve the child's agwine to git
we'll arter all."'
And then she resumed her weary
tramp through the woods. Mack and
Betty managed to get alongsomehow,
and the good old mother seemed to
be insensible to fatigue. So it came
about that when the broken fragments
of Lees brave legiOns came struggling
homeward, that Mack was able to
hobble out on his crutches, and lean
on the rickety gate and hear the news
from some tired veteran homeward
bound. "Thelast / seeduv 'im," said
a great, bearded warrior, in reply to
Aunt 'Mima's question, "wus in one
O. them fights around Alanty. We
was whipped, as W egin'ly waslongthen,
an broke for a fence. Little Dick got
to the fence an we hollered to i'm to
throw down his musket, but he helt
on to it. ! reckon he wus too skeered
to un'stan. Any how he jes' KEEP holt
on to it, an wen he clumb up on the
fence, a rail give way, an SO fell back
wards, and then the Yankees fired
so fast that there wern't no tellin'
nothing about it afterwards, an we
lost him."
The little crop was planted, thetwo
women worked faithfully, and Mack
hobbled about on his crutches and
helped them all he could. Spring was
come when the war closed. Summer
days had waxed and waned before
many of those inmates of northern
prisons found their way back to the
old familiar haunts.
The harvest was not great, but
Aunt Nina and Betty felt that the
millennium had come when they were
able TO sit down and eat a reasonably
hearty meal OF bread and bacon, after
the wintery sun had yelled himself be-
hind the riffs Of watry clouds that
hung above the tree tops. TIE long,
long, war was over. The shrill cry Of
the famished dogs OF war no longer
carried terror among the hearts of
these simple, out of-the-world-folks,
hidden away among the barrens.
Many a time and oft they conversed
together, and the grieving mother
mourned her dead boys.
IL can bear the loss OF Eben an Ri
ley an Hamp, because Pve got use to
it" she would say. MBut my baby
boy. Poor little Dick | know the
rest aire dead and gone, but | don't
know wher' Dick is
Christmas came. never shall for
get that Christmas time. shall ever
remember how the poor, fool negroes
strutted and paraded, and fred the
old muskets, and had q big time.
cause you see, sab, de bottom rails
nnt nn a. tnn - a. fnnno ~ 4kcr urntld